Sen. Warren endorses Kamala Harris for Calif. Senate

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the toast of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, may be demurring on running a campaign in 2016 – for president – but she’s lent some of her star power to Kamala Harris’s effort to become the next senator from California.

Warren, the first-term Democrat from Massachusetts, told supporters Wednesday that she is endorsing Harris, California’s attorney general and the first name to officially to enter the Golden State’s 2016 Senate contest.

The seat became open when four-term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, herself a favorite of the party’s liberal base, said she would not run for re-election next year.

“I’m supporting Kamala,” Warren wrote her supporters. “Barbara Boxer has been my friend and mentor in the United States Senate, and I’m very sorry that we’ll be losing her strong leadership…Kamala Harris is a smart, tough, and experienced prosecutor who has consistently stood up to Wall Street.”

A host of California Democrats are said to be weighing the Senate race, including former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, billionaire Democratic contributor Tom Steyer and various state officials and members of Congress.